1. Disagree. SLJoe is rumored to set up his own scenarios with alts and accomplices - just to come up with stories. Reference: http://www.your2ndplace.com/node/113

People in the forums have mentioned him as well.

He certainly doesn't evoke trust... or, in my opinion, links. But you went there, so I commented.

Posted at 12:35AM on Jun 1st 2007 by Nobody Fugazi

2. We are responding to the previous comment regardings our media agency "staging" or otherwise "set up his own scenarios with alts and accomplices". We are a real life media agency who's credentials include member in several US and international journalistic association and unions. We find the previous comment quite interesting as it seems that when one is worried about an upcoming episode "Underaged Sexual Roleplay in Second Life", they tend to either threaten or in this case post false statements. We must reminder the writer of the previous comment that we abide to the Society for Professional Journalists Ethics Code, which would preclude us from "staging" or otherwise. Viewers of the episode will see that this was not the case as well.

We are in the final stages of our investigative reporting stage, (awaiting responses from land owners) prior to releasing this episode.

Posted at 1:55PM on Jun 3rd 2007 by SLJoe

3. Denial is expected but not rewarded.

Who is 'we'? That use of the plural tends to support the allegations. ;-)

Posted at 1:02AM on Jun 5th 2007 by Nobody Fugazi

4. What I have to go on is long time members of the school claiming shady people were attempting to pay players to speak to them in a matter that would fit the story, Telling me you were chased out of Henti because you were caught setting up scenarios to fit your needs. What's true and whats not remains to be seen, But I personally believe my members over a guy looking to jump on the tails of already running story's. All sljoe has found is 20 and 30 somethings role playing a very common fantasy thats played out in real life homes every night. And if that's all that sljoe has to report on, well I don't need to go into detail about his journalistic skill. When online searches showed the site owner to be, or one time have been that of a public accountant, SlJoe assumed that I was referring to his land owner and contacted them stating I was connecting them to him, which was never the case. SlJoe shared my chat logs with his land owner (A direct TOS violation). Oddly any information he supposedly gathered on my property's happened only when no officers were around, at times the property was on closed access, and supposedly moments after the college reopened and I logged off. Just keep in mind when he states things like "What appeared to be normal school's of education appeared to be nothing more than a great location for pedophilic teachers to prey on under aged students. How does a history class where for every wrong answer, the student loses a piece of clothing or classroom's that include sex desks as spanking counselor rooms..." He is referring to nothing more than consenting adults acting out scenarios. If you haven't seen adults having avatar sex in second life before, and this is "news" to you then you really haven't been in secondlife very long and certainly shouldn't be speaking on behalf of secondlife residents.

Posted at 2:51AM on Jun 5th 2007 by Sarah

5. We find it quite amazing that this upcoming episode has caused such interest. First off, when we speak of we it is because SLJoe Bailey (Avatar) is a shared avatar whom is shared between 2 reporters. We also includes our media group whom is behind SLJoe.com. As far as Sarah's statements, we find it quite interesting that she continues to make these statements. While we do not want to give out too much about the upcoming episode we can tell you that the basis of our story is to focus and investigate the under aged role play industry in general. While it seems that some are very worried that this will mean the hard hand from Linden Labs coming down on them. We can tell you that the footage taken so far includes that of a one on one history class between a teacher and student (with a follow up interview with the student), along with general footage of the school's environment. As far as any statement that we have attempted to stage an event, during this episode this will be very clear as not being true. As far as us being chased out of "Henti", we can tell you that the footage we have received from this school was provided to us by a willing resident with Second Life whom voluntarily came forward with the information. This footage is limited mainly to that of the school itself.

Sarah's comment that we somehow violated the Linden Labs Terms of Service with release of our transcript of a follow up interview with our landlord, we have not violated any term as we took appropriate measures to ensure that the identity was protected. The only reason that we provided transcript was due to her statements involving our landlord.

Even though we are a real life media group whom reports within Second Life, it still means that we abide to the journalism code of ethics among others. We maintain good standing memberships in journalist associations in which place accountability upon our journalist endevours. Even though we have been notified of the recent US court ruling regarding the legality of the Linden Labs Term of Service, we have resolved to continue to honor the existing term of service with regards to identity within photographs and video footage.

While it is not uncommon to receive feedback from our journalist content, we find it interesting that we have received the volume of feedback on an episode that has not been aired yet. We can tell you that while we have receive a couple of negative (and in this case incorrect) comments, we can tell you that this is far shadowed from the number of positive comments regarding our coverage of this important topic.

We will leave the final opinion of this episode up to the viewers. We were planning to have this episode already in production, however due to additional footage delivered to us, we have delayed this episode to allow for fact checking of the new footage.

SLJoe

Posted at 5:18PM on Jun 5th 2007 by SLJoe

6. Lets face it. SLJoe doesn't have authenticity other than what people give him/it by linking him/it. Whoever it is claiming to be a real life media company, but they won't NAME the real life media company.

Personally, I think he's full of it - trying to build a reputation by bringing down others. Building a reputation on sensationalism... well, water finds its level. And I actually agree. SLJoe will find its level.

Posted at 10:53PM on Jun 5th 2007 by Nobody Fugazi

7. Well I think this lays it all out about Joe and the type of "Real Life Media Corp" They/He are..
http://www.your2ndplace.com/node/150

Posted at 1:39PM on Jun 7th 2007 by Sarah

8. We have posted this comment as this blog links to a blog that has posted incorrect information. Please note that this blog has not reported incorrect information. Please note that this comment was posted on the following blog posting:

http://www.your2ndplace.com/node/150

Comment posted:

We are very upset to read this blog listing. Perhaps the writer should have simply contacted our company to request comment instead of trying to put a story together with incorrect information.

First off, Vandelay Industries SA DE CV is a company that is an internet branding and investment firm. Our principal role is to assist and fund ventures within the Internet. We receive business idea's and concepts, bring all the required parties to the table and execute the end product. Does this mean that we own or operate the ventures in question, certainly not.

In the case of the SLJoe.com venture, while we can only release limited information, we can say that we were contacted by a media organization with an innovative idea of bridging the Second Life environment with animation video which would then be distributed both online and well as in the television format. While this had been tried with online video, the idea of bringing a investigative new agency and television distribution into this format had not been done. Our involvement with this project was simply as stated above. Is Vandelay Industries SA DE CV involved in the news reporting or production, no - well except for the original pilot episode, (in which we provided financial backing). We can tell you that SLJoe.com has now spread it wings so to speak, in other words our seed capital and involvement has been completed and this new innovative way of reporting news within Second Life is now on it's own.

With regards to the comments that our company Vandelay Industries SA DE CV is involved within the gambling, pornography and banking industry, the writer should note that our role is an internet branding and investment firm. We take exception to any defamation of our companies image. Our company only involves itself within businesses that operate within the laws of the countries in which they operate. Yes our past ventures including the branding of a casino site (which operates within the British Virgin Islands and does not allow United States players as required under US law). With regards to pornography, we take offense to this statement as it is not true. With regards to the Bank of Linden, we have to admit that while we do try to succeed at every branding venture, this venture did not make it off the boardroom table due to copyright and trademark issues with the Linden Labs organization.

While we knew that the SLJoe.com venture would be successful, we did anticipate that some would draw our company into the operations of this venture. We hope this this posting makes it very clear as to our involvement in this venture and the status of this involvement at this point.

While we support blogging (we have too as our business is driven by the internet) we take exception with false statements are made about our company. We have taken steps to ensure that our companies character has not been effected by the statements within this blog.

Vandelay Industries SA DE CV

Posted at 1:05PM on Jun 8th 2007 by Vandelay Industies SA DE CV

9. I find it rather odd that a company would do it's best to separate itself from it's "investment". Wouldn't you back it normally? I'm not sure what's going on here, but anyone suspected of being attached to SLJoe tries very hard to distance themselves from him. I think that alone is a sign of his credibility.

Posted at 2:40PM on Jun 8th 2007 by Sarah

10. Heh. They're bluffing. Here's why:

(1) They ARE, in fact, linked to SLJoe through SLJoe's press release.

(2) Google shows where that company's name is.

(3) They distance themselves from SLJoe, but to do so they have to tell us who SLJoe is. They are indicated in the press release, so only SLJoe can change that.

(4) They have threatened to speak to the Your2ndPlace.com web host - but they have no grounds for slander/libel/copyright since all information is demonstrably public - all links are what anyone else could find.

So - the onus is on them to indicate what they are talking about. As for me - well, a background in Internet Governance allows me some knowledge of precedents. Bring it. And your wallets.

Posted at 6:09PM on Jun 8th 2007 by Nobody Fugazi

11. As we have stated before, we let the viewers decide and based on the initial response from the pilot episode as well as the early stats for our second episode, thank you to the viewers for making the SLJoe.com show an instant success. Not only are we experiencing overwhelming viewing stats but the SLJoe has now entered into final negotiations for licensing for television distribution in both current form and custom news feeds.

While investigative news agencies such as ours are used to a little negative feedback, we want to note that the only negative feedback appears to be from parties associated (either directly or by association) with a future episode titled "Under aged Sexual role play Schools in Second Life". Two negative feedbacks verse 350+ positive and counting. This future episode is awaiting official comments from Linden Labs as well as an independent registered sexual therapist. Once this has been received, again we will leave it up to the viewers.

Again, thank you for your support on the SLJoe.com launch.

SLJoe.com team
"Second Life in a whole new prospective"

Posted at 12:03PM on Jun 9th 2007 by SLJoe

12. Hehe. You and Vandelay are one and the same - you have the same IP address. 'Official Review' - heh. Hornswaggle.

Posted at 5:31PM on Jun 9th 2007 by Nobody Fugazi

13. I tend to try to stay out of things which involve (I guess!) competitors to SLCN. Generally, I like to hear viewers speak about what they think. Any comments I make are obviously biased toward our wonderful, budding new TV station that we are quite proud of. But, I try my best to be objective.

On that note, I must advise that any business should avoid embarrassing misspellings in slogans. Sure, you might get things wrong in an email, or even in a report or official press release.

But, a slogan?


SLJoe.com team
"Second Life in a whole new prospective"

As it is written, the various possible meanings of this slogan invite scrutiny from the recesses of the imagination. I must surely believe that SLJoe means "perspective", no?

Pretending to be a big media company can be fun. But let's not all take it so seriously!

Posted at 4:09AM on Aug 25th 2007 by Wiz Nordberg